Layout Tour

[nolatron]

I posted this in my progress thread, but thought it might be better here so it's not so buried in the thread.

An 8-minute video tour of my layout in it's current state:

YouTube - Layout Tour

[hickstmj]

Very nice tour Shaun.

[scubadude]

Ahhh, so many great ideas to steal from, so little time!! Great job Shaun....

[doctorwayne]

Nice tour Shaun, and a very impressive layout, too!

Wayne

[railroader9731]

very very nice cant wait to see the city scene done

[jesso]

Nice video! Things are turning out great.

[nolatron]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

[TrainNut]

The swinging staging area - that's a neat idea but I have some thoughts of caution (all of which you have probably already thought of)...
- As I noticed that your room door swings in, you might want to rig up an "in use" red light (or a simple knock first sign)on the outside of the room to let other occupants of the house know when the doorway will be obstructed with the staging swingers so as to prevent locos and cars from accidentally being bumped from the staging. I saw that it locks in place but sometimes it doesn't take much.
- Will you be staging when the swinger is in the open position? If so, it might be a delicate operation to swing the arms into the closed position with locos and cars on there without having them roll off.

I like that Japanese 7-11. I'm sure somewhere in the U.S. you could find a prototype example!
Do you have bottom access inside the helix? If so, you may want to add a temporary net when not accessing so as to catch the inevitable derailments. If not, a simple chunk of soft foam would accomplish the same purpose.
Thanks for the video. I wish I had the ability to do the same.

[nolatron]

Originally Posted by TrainNut

The swinging staging area - that's a neat idea but I have some thoughts of caution (all of which you have probably already thought of)...
- As I noticed that your room door swings in, you might want to rig up an "in use" red light (or a simple knock first sign)on the outside of the room to let other occupants of the house know when the doorway will be obstructed with the staging swingers so as to prevent locos and cars accidentally being bumped from the staging. I saw that it locks in place but sometimes it doesn't take much.

I'm still really thinking about that staging bridge actually. This is version 1. I may eventually remove that office door totally too, just to open up the room. Not sure yet. I'll probably also add some sides to each level to prevent stuff from falling 5-6 feet to the floor.

- Will you be staging when the swinger is in the open position? If so, it might be a delicate operation to swing the arms into the closed position with locos and cars on there without having them roll off.

Probably. Trains will be parked here and swung out against the wall when not in use. I'll certainly take steps to ensure things won't take a tumble though.

Do you have bottom access inside the helix? If so, you may want to add a temporary net when not accessing so as to catch the ineveitable derailments. If not, a simple chunk of soft foam would accomplish the same purpose/

Not yet. adding an access hole is on my to-do list before it gets enclosed (whenever that may be). But yeah, some foam sounds like a good idea access hole or not. Thanks!

[logicman]

Ahhh, so many great ideas to steal from, so little time!! Great job Shaun.... __________________
Cheers,
Richard

I'll second that !

A small point about the swinging section:

Those shelf brackets are inherently weak and flexible.
May I suggest at least a diagonal strut underneath?
Better yet, some cross-braced struts to give a suggestion of a trestle bridge.

btw, being substantially deaf, I really appreciate the total lack of overloud music which seems everywhere to dominate the channels and mask the speech.

Nice one!

[nolatron]

Originally Posted by logicman

Those shelf brackets are inherently weak and flexible.
May I suggest at least a diagonal strut underneath?
Better yet, some cross-braced struts to give a suggestion of a trestle bridge.

Yup. I was thinking the same thing. It currently has a little bit of sag to it, so some additional support is definitely needed.